Matchbox guy on Pawn Stars

[Rob]

I was just watching an episode of Pawn Stars, the USA series featuring Rick Harrison's Pawn shop in Las Vegas. Anyway, the guy pictured below walked in with a huge collection of Matchbox items ranging from Kingsize to Yesteryears to Gift sets to accessories. He also had regular wheels including a 25 Tanker with grey wheels, all items looked mint in box or thereabouts and he said he had been collecting them for years and years. He wanted to pawn them, not sell them, and he said he wanted 20,000 dollars loan against them.

The Pawn shop guys had their regular expert come in and appraise the collection and he reckoned current value then was around 25,000 - 28,000 dollars, although the guy who owned them disagreed and reckoned they were worth 75,000 dollars.

The guy got his loan of 20k dollars which he was told he had 120 days to repay or the collection would then belong to the Pawn shop. It was a very interesting episode of the series for obvious reasons, does anyone here knows who he is, maybe some of our USA guys recognise him.

[durangokid]

Rob,
This Pawn Star episode was discussed a little in this previous thread:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2047&p=16616&hilit=pawn#p16616
I don't know who the guy is in your photo, but I seem to recall that he got the collection out of pawn and not sure what happened after that.
The "toy guy", Johnny Jimenez who appears on Pawn Stars regularly (included subject episode) has come to the Albuquerque "Gathering of Friends" and is really a nice guy. He brought quite a load of Matchbox items with him including some very nice models and boxes.

Bill

[petethesweet]

Hi Rob,we are keen watchers of Pawn Stars, you don't need many bits now to make twenty grand especially if there is some hard to find stuff. Would have liked to have seen them displayed, didn't like how they were all packed into those containers, can imagine a lot of the bottom boxes to be damaged.Pete.

[Rob]

Hi Bill

Thanks for the info, I watch Pawn Stars regularly and the guy you mention, Johnny, is as you say their regular toy expert. Very interesting that he went to the gathering. I will take a look at the link showing when this was discussed, must have missed it before, cheers.

Hi Pete

Yes, I saw all those see through plastic containers crammed full with models, several looked to contain unboxed models wrapped in tissue paper. I know they repeat the episodes periodically and that is one I have not seen before, cheers.

[kwakers]

I actually have a true story of a few E Bay listings that were confirmed by "Toy Guy Johnny" about 2-3 years ago now. The one model I saw that was a rarity was in fact an 11A in the early rare green colour. The model looked Mint, and the colour was the correct shade of green, but alas, the base picture told it all. The "Rare" green Tanker this Arizona Seller had for sale on E Bay had the later curved reinforcement on its base, making that model an out and out easily spotted FAKE. The listing clearly stated that all this Seller's models had been authenticated by the Pawn Star's Toy Expert "Johnny", and even gave his official business name as I recall. I waited a few days to see whether that listing was ever pulled because of the models incorrect baseplate, but apparently no other collector stepped forward to warn the Seller of that. The model closed at only $350, far from an original green rarity's value, so I then contacted the Seller. I advised him to warn his Buyer that this "Green" Tanker was really a nicely re-painted fake, and that was why it did not bring the usual $600+ price of a very minty model in that colour. I also told him to prepare to issue a full refund if the Buyer was not happy when he received it if he were to ship it without stating what I had warned him about. I then asked why "Expert Johnny" was not able to spot such an obvious problem, but I never heard anything back from that E Bay Seller, or in fact his friend Johnny..... ALL that Seller's Lesney listings disappeared within two days of my message, and the collection he was listing never seemed to turn up on E Bay after that from any other Arizona Seller that I could find. Could it have been that same Pawn Stars collection that was being offered??? We will never know I guess. If you get to see that episode, the GPW #25 was interesting, but the boxed King and Queen Coronation Coach was my favorite of the models shown and explained to "Rick", the Pawn Shop owner's Son.
I hope all the models that nice guy "Toy Expert Johnny" had at the Gathering were examined VERY CLOSELY..... Cheers! kwakers

[durangokid]

I hope all the models that nice guy "Toy Expert Johnny" had at the Gathering were examined VERY CLOSELY..... Cheers! kwakers

Kwakers,
Thank you for the additional information relating to this matter. I wonder if the Ebay Seller "said" it was confirmed by Johnny-- if in fact it really had been??
Anyway, the items that Johnny brought to the "Gathering" were mostly common type models and I don't remember him having real hard to find or rare type models so I didn't visit with him as such. Perhaps some other members may recall more specifics around this. I bought a few models from him as well as some boxes and was very pleased with them including his prices. They were definitely all genuine. He had a friendly guy with him (I think named Bill?) who seemed to handle a lot of the interactions/sales also. All in all, I enjoyed visiting with them and working out some deals-- a fun time.
Bill

[Rob]

I don't do facebook but found this link on google which seems to indicate the guy never returned for his models and they got forgotten about in the Pawn shop until some 3 years later in December 2013 when remodelling was done.

https://www.facebook.com/lasvegastoysha ... 0092277606

...and just found the original episode when the guy above took his Matchbox into the Pawn shop

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x34gtxw

[motorman]

Thanks Rob, so on the face of it he never came back. The big question is did this guy take his money and run knowing he had done better than he imagined as his collection did not contain anything so special?

[durangokid]

I don't do facebook but found this link on google which seems to indicate the guy never returned for his models and they got forgotten about in the Pawn shop until some 3 years later in December 2013 when remodelling was done.

Rob, I don't do Facebook either, but appreciate the update !! Wonder how the Pawn Stars would forget about something like that -- it was a chunk of change!

Bill

[Idris]

Thanks Rob, so on the face of it he never came back. The big question is did this guy take his money and run knowing he had done better than he imagined as his collection did not contain anything so special?

My thoughts entirely. He did not redeem his pledge because he got more than he knew his collection was worth.